Roberto Vittori, Astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA)

Details

Born on 15 October 1964 in Viterbo, Italy. Married to the former Valeria Nardi of Citta' di Castello, Italy. They have two children. Enjoys soccer, running, swimming and reading.

In 1997, he attended the US Air Force Flight Safety School and from 1997 to 1998, he was wing Flight Safety Officer at the Italian Test Centre. He was also a teacher of aerodynamics for the Italian Air Force's Accident Investigation Course.
Roberto Vittori is a major in the Italian Air Force. He has logged nearly 2000 hours in over 40 different aircraft including F-104, Tornado GR1, F-18, AMX, M-2000, G-222 and P-180. In July 1998 he was selected as an astronaut by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in cooperation with ESA, and one month later he joined the European Astronaut Corps, whose homebase is ESA's European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.In August 1998 he was relocated to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and entered the 1998 Astronaut class for participation in a training programme to qualify astronauts for future assignments on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.